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Thursday, 29 September 2011

Dulux teams up with UNICEF to raise £16.7 million to help transform lives

Today Dulux is taking its passion for colour to higher heights in a bid to raise £16.7 million for UNICEF, the world’s leading organisation protecting the rights of children and young people.

For £1 you can own one of the 16.7 million colours that can be displayed on your average computer, smartphone or tablet, whether that is a favourite hue, in honour of your chosen football team or as a gift for a loved one to celebrate a special moment. To make a difference to the lives of children across the globe just visit

Former England rugby star Matt Dawson is just one of the famous names that has staked his claim on one of the available colours choosing olive, the theme of his wedding. Likewise Jemima Khan has claimed blue in honour of Chelsea FC, her son’s favourite football team. Sir Roger Moore joins the fray choosing a specific tone of blue representing his wife’s Swedish homeland, meanwhile Duncan Bannatyne remains patriotic to his Scottish roots with yet another blue tone.

Matt Pullen, Dulux Marketing Director UK & Eire comments: "Never before has colour been used in such a positive and engaging way to transform lives. It is our aim to name each and every one of the 16.7 million colours to support the great work that UNICEF do and urge people to get involved to make a difference and spread the word through your social networks too."

Matt continues , "Picking a colour for yourself or a friend is such a simple task yet it will make such a dramatic difference to millions of children’s lives around the world. We urge everyone to visit

UNICEF is the world’s leading organisation protecting the rights of children and young people. UNICEF is present in more than 190 countries protecting children’s right to be educated, healthy, protected and treated fairly. UNICEF works with families, local communities, businesses and governments to ensure that these rights are upheld.

Your donation will help UNICEF continue its work on everything from building schools in Pakistan and bringing clean water to Ethiopia, to providing immunisations in Haiti and responding to emergencies like the recent catastrophe in East Africa.

I love the sound of the ingredients, all foods I want to eat and on a pizza base, even better. There's something about this range makes me feel they are more healthy too.

Domino's very kindly asked me to review one and I decided to go for the Rustica. This was a tough choice as I wanted to try all three. But we had a family vote and this one came out on top.

Well this is the pizza when it arrived, as I opened the box I was pleased to see a fresh looking pizza, with large pieces of chicken, bacon and spinach, the sunblush tomatoes also looking good gave off their distinct aroma. We chose the classic base and were told it was no extra charge. though the pizza comes on a thin crust usually.

Taste wise its gorgeous, its as good as it looked, succulent chicken, fresh spinach, smoky bacon pieces and strong sun blush tomatoes. It just lifts the average pizza into a special dish.

Family verdict "Its so fresh," "tasty" "need another," "I want to try all the others now"

A fiendishly good limited edition of the nation’s favourite fruity drink is set to hit the supermarket shelves this Halloween, as Vimto launches a range of specially designed bottles, perfect for themed parties and other Halloween fun.

The spooky limited edition haunted house designs are available across all 2L bottles of Fizzy Vimto, No Added Sugar and Cherry Vimto. These party sized bottles are great for sharing, so Vimto has designed a special range of creepy cocktail recipes that will add some seriously mixed up fun to your fancy dress frolics.

The limited edition Halloween bottles are available in all major supermarkets from early October, so start practising your creepy Vimto Halloween cocktails.

Vimto’s Creepy Cocktail Recipes

Vimto

Eyeball Surprise

A supernaturally simple concoction that every stylish spectre will be drinking this Halloween.

Use an ice cream scoop to make two ‘eyeballs’ of ice cream and press jelly sweets into each one to create the pupils. Place them in the bottom of a tall chilled goblet and recite a witches incantation. Fill the glass two thirds full of devilishly delicious fizzy Vimto and watch the fiendish foam froth over the top of the glass.

No Added Sugar Vimto

Spooky Strawberry Heart

This is a great drink to serve to a scare to your guests. Swirl some No Added Sugar Vimto in with some cranberry juice and pour into individual glasses. Keep up the fear factor with a ‘Bleeding Heart’ made out of a bbq stick speared strawberry. Simply dunk the ‘heart’ into the glass and serve chilled.

Cherry Vimto/ NAS Cherry Vimto

Blood Curdling Brew

The perfect cauldron concoction for witches and wizards everywhere! Put the flesh of one chopped melon along with 10 crushed red seedless grapes into your cauldron (or glass if cauldron not available) and blend until they form a ghoulishly bloody pulp! Strain into a glass and top up with fiendishly fruity fizzy

Cherry Vimto to create your brew.

Witches tip - Half-fill an ice cube tray with water, add a halved grape to each section and press a raisin into the centre and then freeze to create eyeball ice cubes.

Vimto's Guide To Halloween Parties

Halloween is a boo-tiful excuse to have a spooky party, and you don’t need to live in Transylvania to pull it off! All you need is some imagination and you can host a great party without blowing the bank. Along with our Vimto creepy cocktail recipes, we’ve put together our top 5 tips on how get your party off with a scream:

1. Think of a Theme-

Whether you go with Murder Mystery, Ghost Town, Witches Party or Haunted House, a theme will help your guests decide what costumes to wear and make decorating more fun.

2. Make your invitations at home –

Print off pictures of bats, ghosts and pumpkins and trace the silhouettes onto coloured paper. You can decorate these with glitter or paint them in spooky colours.

3. Get them at the front door –

Your front door is the first thing your guests see so dress it up to the nines. Spattering with bloody handprints and gore is very gross very effective.

4. Use body parts! –

If you really want to make a creepy impression at your party, make eyeballs out of mozzarella & olives, severed ear skewers with prawns and turn those party sausages into fingers!

5. Go for Gross Games -

Put some slimy, squishy things into different areas of a box and have your kids guess what’s in it just by feeling around. Slimy things like jelly are great fun to guess and you’ll definitely get lots of squeals!

For more fun Halloween recipes, party tips and more visit the Vimto Facebook page at

I love bread but since being on the Slimming World Plan I've resigned myself to having anything other than my daily portion of wholemeal as a treat, so when I do treat myself it has to be very very good bread, the type that looks, smells and tastes heavenly.

So much is my love for crusty bread that unlike other Slimming world members who have been getting a Chinese or pizza as their treat, I have been off to the bakery to buy a bloomer or crusty baguette.

So when offered a Crosta and Mollica Italian bread to try, I was happy to break my plan and this time for a Sunday breakfast. I was sent the toasting bread, a handy precut five slices. Its attractively packaged and made me want to tuck in straight away. I resisted the urge as I was making some lemon curd for the weekend.

It smells freshly baked a very rich wheaty smell. Toasting the aroma is lovely.I used good butter and the curd and with a cup of Lavazza I had a well earned leisurely Sunday morning breakfast, loved each mouthful, its light crunchy, soft in the middle and has a lovely flavour, I'll definitely buy again.

Along with this new launch there are also TorinesiExtra Fine Grissini which i will also be trying on a treat night!

Crosta & Mollica, suppliers of quality regional Italian breads, bring an authentic taste of Italy with two classics made with local ingredients for a delicious culinary experience.

Altamura, a traditional artisan bread, is lovingly made using 100% local durum wheat flour ground in mills within the communes of Altamura. Boasting an aromatic taste coupled with a crisp thick crust and golden crumb, these large Puglian loafs are delicious when toasted and turned into bruschetta with a rub of garlic, glug of olive oil and topped with salt and pepper. Alternatively try adding some ripe and juicy tomatoes and a piece of basil for ‘must have’ Christmas antipasto served immediately with a glass of velvety red or warming mulled wine.Baked by the Forte family in Altamura, Italy for over fifty years where ‘passione’ is at the heart of what they do, Altamura bread was the first baking product in Europe to be granted a DOP certificate (or denomination of protected origin).Altamura is available in Waitrose nationwide and Selfridges priced from £1.79 for five slices.

TorinesiExtra Fine Grissini – a unique collaboration between Crosta & Mollica and the historic estate of Castello Monte Vibiano in Umbria has been the catalyst for baking these delicately light and fragrant breadsticks – perfect when wrapped with a little Parma ham, served with dips or as an accompaniment to your antipasti plate.Using Castello Monte Vibiano’s first press olive oil produced from the 13,000 olive trees that surround the spectacular castle in the hills of Umbria, the oil is specially preserved after pressing to ensure that the fresh aroma and taste is retained when added to the dough in the traditional grissini bakery in Piemonte.Available in Waitrose, Crosta & Mollica Torinesi – Extra Fine Grissini retails at £1.29 for a 120g box.www.crostamollica.com

I recently reviewed Store Twenty Ones florals, summery maxi dresses and bags and I was amazed at the range and quality for such great prices. It is certainly easier to keep up to date if the prices for key fashion pieces are within reach of my purse.

As sure as summer gives way to autumn and winter Store Twenty One continues to bring the trends to us without the designer prices.

This season its retro and the shops are shouting stylish 40's, Disco 70's and the Swinging 60’s.

I'm showing you a few 60's pieces two which Store Twenty One kindly sent me. I adore the shift dress seen below, it hangs so well, the wether has just hit tropical with a lovely Indian summer and I'm enjoying it, but also looking forward to wearing this dress with black tights and long black boots.

I've already spotted a few Beatles and stones tees in the stores. Geometric shapes appearing on all the dresses and blouses. Fur and ruffles and belted waists.

Store Twenty One have all the key pieces and the prices are great.

Prada this season have been showcasing the tunic in muted tones and featuring belted coats.

Here is Store Twenty One take on a cool shift dress. The price is cool too at £19.99.

A lovely winter tunic in navy is an astonishing £12.99

A fur gilet is great for keeping you warm, these will team with a pair of denim flares, again Prada had a lot of fur trim on the catwalks, they may not be in your price range but how about this above for £24.99.

This has to be a favourite of mine, one for the shape of the dress, the bold pattern really makes a statement and best of all the price for this Camel Tunic is £12.99

I hope you get some time to read this, if not do take a look at the video, its more than cute and a fascinating factual journey of a toddler from ages 1-3, a real awww at the voiceover.

This amazing film tells why extra nutrients are needed to fuel the extraordinary growth and development. You'll see why toddlers are such 'Little One-ders'!

FIRST ‘CENSUS’ OF ONE-TO-THREES REVEALS THE SECRET LIFE OF BRITISH TODDLERS

Our “Little One-ders” Are Getting What They Want But Not Always What They Need

British toddlers spend longer staring at a screen each day than they do eating their meals and more time in a car than at a children’s playground, according to a first of its kind ‘Census’ giving a snapshot into the lives of our one to three years olds..

The ‘Census’ was commissioned by www.growingupmilkinfo.com, a website for parents seeking information about toddler nutrition and the role of Growing Up Milk within a healthy, balanced diet.

Busy Social & Cultural Lives

Toddlers are quids-in when it comes to lifestyle, with the average toddler having nearly a four-figure sum spent annually on their activities/classes, almost £180 on toys and boasting a wardrobe of designer clothes. However, even though, “pound for pound”, they need more energy and nutrients than their parents, the survey results suggest that toddlers’ diets aren’t getting the same attention as other aspects of their lives – despite nutrition’s important role in helping growth and development. The ‘Census’ gives some fresh perspective on “the state of the toddler nation’s plates”, with eight out of ten parents questioned unaware that toddlers have different nutritional needs to the rest of the family.

Toddlers’ diets are ‘more burgers than broccoli’

Fast and convenience foods play a significant role in the diet. Typically, today’s toddler is more likely to have eaten a burger than broccoli. 60 per cent have been to a fast food restaurant, according to the new figures and the vast majority of toddlers questioned had tried chips (86%), pizza (80%) and chicken nuggets (68%). This echoes previous data from the Infant and Toddler Forum, which revealed 29 per cent of toddlers eat a takeaway once a week and that 81% of toddlers are regularly given ready-made adults foods likely to be high in fat, sugar and salt.

Report co-author Amanda Ursell comments, “This age group is poorly defined, with conflicting data and little attention is paid to toddlers’ unique nutritional needs. One to three year olds go through a period of such extraordinary growth and development that we should be thinking of them not just as toddlers but as ‘Little One-ders’.”

“Although their lifestyles can rival our own, toddlers are not mini-adults. Their bodies, brains and bones are developing at an amazing rate and they need the right nutrition to fuel this,” she says.

A lot on mum’s plate

Today’s busy lifestyles are also having a clear impact on toddlers’ diets. One in 100 parents say they’ve never cooked a meal for their child and the average mum has just ten recipes she can rotate for lunch and dinner. Favourite meals of the one to three year olds surveyed included spaghetti bolognaise, chicken and shepherd’s pie but also Chinese takeaway, McDonald’s, chips and pizza.

Amanda Ursell comments, “There is little room in the toddler diet for the place of ‘empty’ calories in the form of sugar and or fat-rich foods, which have little other nutritional goodness.”

Six out of ten mums surveyed for the study said they were unaware of the UK Departments of Health recommendation that toddlers should receive a daily supplement containing vitamins A, C and D and responses showed 74% of toddlers are not given these extra vitamins. Uptake of vitamin supplements was reported as lowest in Edinburgh, Newcastle and Sheffield, where the need for vitamin D supplementation is said to be greater than in cities south of Birmingham, due to lower exposure to the UVB sunlight which helps the body produce Vitamin D.

The Census also revealed that, encouragingly, some of today’s toddlers have pretty adventurous tastes: 30% of them had tried olives, 30% had tried smoked salmon, 11% had tried sushi, 17% had tried granola and 5% had sampled lobster.

Amanda Ursell concludes, “On the whole, UK toddlers are a lucky lot when you compare them to those living in developing countries because most get enough food and have access to clean water. However, it can come as a surprise that many toddlers here are not getting enough of the essential vitamins and minerals they need for optimum development.

“The good news is that modern developments in toddler nutrition have provided today’s parents with convenient and effective ways to ensure their toddlers receive the nutrients they need to help fuel their growth. For instance, 300ml of Growing Up Milk every day alongside a healthy, balanced diet will provide toddlers calcium, iron, vitamins A, C and D, and omega 3 and 6.”

The ‘Census’ was commissioned by www.growingupmilkinfo.com, a website for parents seeking information about toddler nutrition and the role of Growing Up Milk within a healthy, balanced diet.

The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys is lookin’ for a Mini-Baker to be the face of its delicious cakes and muffins on pack.

The lucky winner, who will be aged up to 12, will also be given a once in a lifetime chance to visit the bakin’ factory and help The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys create a new treat that will actually hit the shelves.

Gary Frank, Managin’ Director of The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys, explains more: “We are always on the look-out for ideas for new flavours for our products, so thought we would ask one of our mini bakin’ fans to choose it for us! I am sure he or she will come up with somethin’ tasty that kids and parents alike will love!”

To be in with a chance to win this fantastic prize, parents need to visit www.minibaker.co.uk and upload a picture of their Mini Baker. They will also need to tell The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys what cake or muffin their Mini-Baker would like to see in the shops.

Regional semi-finalists will be selected who will all receive goodies from The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys. An overall winner will then be selected to win the once in a lifetime visit to the factory, where they will take part in a photoshoot to be featured on pack.

There is a new site, www.becomingateen.co.uk, which has just been launched for teenage girls to help them understand the changes they will go through when they hit puberty. It also helps parents and carers explain what's happening to them and how to manage their healthcare!

Now I had friends whose parents refused to tell them anything about puberty and did not allow them to any of the sex education classes. Move on to 2008 and Paige also had friends who were not allowed to attend.

I caanot imagine how scared these girls and boys must be at the changes going on in their bodies and not knowing if its normal.

Paige had a rough time for a year with one period then nothing for months, then irregular.

To not have me to talk to I think would have made here really anxious, as it was she was often worried.

A new way of learing about periods, puberty for girls and parents is at hand, hopefully some of the girls without support or knowledge will be able to find it here, even for teens that have advice will still find this so useful. Lots of tips and talk all in a clear and friendly way.

Becoming a teenager is a difficult time for children with both emotional and physical changes to their bodies happening at an increased rate during these formative years. But for girls these changes can be even more challenging with the onset of periods. That’s why Lil-Lets are working with educational specialists, National Schools Partnership (NSP) to deliver a flexible and in depth educational programme, which will be used in schools across the UK.

Working in conjunction with NSP, and written with the assistance of PSHE (Personal Social and Health Education) teachers, Lil-Lets will be launching the ‘becoming a teen’ education programme in 3,000 schools targeting year five and six primary school pupils. Teachers will be provided with lesson plans and activity sheets focusing around the physical and emotional changes pupils will be noticing as part of the curriculum for PSHE and SEAL (Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning).

As part of the NSP activity, Lil-Lets launched www.becomingateen.co.uk, which uses avatar style characters to help explain what happens to a girl’s body when she starts puberty, what a period is, what products are available, the differences between these products, and how to use them correctly. It’s these little things that can make a difference and the website has been designed to inform girls by using interactive tools allowing the user to find out information with the guidance of the characters in a modern and appealing format.

Lil-Lets has also enlisted the help of top TV psychologist, Honey Langmaster-James, to answer a few questions that mums and teenagers regularly put to her ! Her website is http://www.honeylangcaster-james.com/

Now if you are a regular reader of the blog, you know I love spicy food, its been an East Asian feast in our house this week. I love trying new dishes and spices, these often though taking time to make from scratch, the great bonus of blogging is trying some superb pastes and meal kits.

Whats great about the kits is I don't have to think, I just provide the meat, maybe some veggies and within minutes I have a meal that seems as if it took hours.

Such is the latest range I received from Thai Taste. They sent me an Easy Pad Thai Meal Kit and a range of Thai curry pastes. Tonight for instance, I walked in the house sliced some chicken, fried,threw in the Thai Taste paste and added fine green beans and green peppers, stock, fish sauce and went and had a cup of tea. Cooked up a pan of Jasmine sticky rice and dinner was done, tasting hot spicy and authentically Thai. It looked and tasted as if I'd been at work cooking all afternoon.

But first the one I wanted to try most was the interesting sounding Kaeng Pa Jungle Paste its a lovely green colour and I did follow the recipe on the back at the beginning of the weekend seen above with prawns and mange tout replacing the snow peas.

My version has red chilli in to add even more heat, but it is a hot dish and also I cooked for long enough to make this a thicker sauce than you find it first to be.

Its a rather soup like consistency if you cook for the suggested time.

Tonight's chicken was cooked as directions, with my choice of vegetables rather than those suggested on the pack. Regular readers of my foodie posts know I rarely stick to recipes and love to put my own slant on a dish.

The finished dish really works with the chicken and the whole family loved it,its a nice spicy heat that feels warming, the flavours very aromatic and I'm looking forward to trying the rest soon.

Make time for Thai

Celebrate authentic Thai cuisine with new flavours from Thai Taste

Transport your dining experience to Southeast Asia with the exotic tastes and flavours that can only come from Thai cuisine. Thai Taste’s range of delicious pastes, sauces and meal kits are truly authentic - made in Thailand, by Thai chefs and using only the best quality natural ingredients.

The new Easy Pad Thai Meal Kit means one of the world’s most popular noodle dishes is now easier than ever to cook. Produced from fresh, locally sourced ingredients it’s an explosion of true Thai flavours that will get the tastebuds tingling; simply add prawns, chicken or vegetables for a mouth watering meal.

For those with a more creative flair, why not experiment with our new Coconut Milk pouch that will add a delicious mild and sweet flavour to any dish? The handy pouch format ensures an extra convenient cooking experience that can be used to create authentic soups, curries or desserts.

If time isn’t on your side, don’t forget our authentic Green Curry Paste and Red Curry Paste. The delicate blend of Thai herbs will ensure you get restaurant quality flavour, in the comfort of your own home in under 15 minutes. Packed full of heat and flavour these Thai style pots will make many meals, and if you can’t use it all you can pop it in the freezer until next time.

And for that added extra kick add a dash of our Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce for a sweet hot chilli taste. The highly versatile sauce means you can use it as an ingredient when cooking or as a dip for starters and sides such as fish cakes, dim sum or spring rolls. It’s a great alternative to your usual condiments.

The Thai Taste range, including the Green and Red Curry Kits, is a delicious treat for any night of the week and a great addition to any dinner party with friends. For recipe inspiration, visit www.thaitaste.co.uk.

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

As I mentioned yesterday I'm aWorldFoods Fusion of Flavours team member part of a global (ooh I feel honoured!) blogging team who will be on a journey around the countries of Asia and particularly their cusine.I will be using some of the products provided by WorldFoods

First stop, China and a stir fry sauce that has the three ingredients ginger, garlic and chilli known as the Holy Trinity of Chinese cooking.

I am using the WorldFoods Chinese Ginger, Garlic and Chilli dipping/stir fry sauce also. These ingredients are all regarded as having great health benefits in Asian countries (as well as being yummy).

This sauce mixes the three together; spicy green chillies with garlic and ginger, in a mouth-watering sauce that works well with seafood, chicken or vegetables.

I had to have a dip to taste its sweet, hot and aromatic. All three of the main ingredients are very evident.

I was really looking forward to the dish.

Now I can and will be making my own recipes using the WorldFoods products but as one of the Chinese recipes this week, had some ingredients I had read about but never actually cooked with, I was keen to do the suggested dish.

I have to tell you in our city the ingredients proved elusive. namely Galangal, fresh Kaffir Lime leaves, Sweet Basil and green peppercorns.

I have used dried kaffir lots of times and was unaware I could get the fresh (well frozen) leaves and I really recommend. The fragrant lime scent as I ripped them up and when cooking made me drool.

So elusive was the sweet basil, I had to give up and I substituted for coriander as the lady in the Asian grocer said it would make a more authentic dish than using Italian basil.It took me a few days for these fresh ingredients to come into our only East Asian grocer.

OK so here are my ingredients assembled after traipsing to town to get the ingredients and also being pretty ravenous I was happy to see that this would be a speedy dish taking minutes.Also for you that follow Slimming World plan the WorldFoods sauce is a healthy one too, only 6 syns for the entire bottle so 1 and a half syns per portion. The rest of the ingredients are free foods.

Prepping the ingredients was very easy the galangal is a very strange looking food, quite tough to chop. It has a scent that is slightly lemony almost gingery,the taste is not at all like ginger (which can be used if you have trouble locating galangal) even though related apparently.

Green peppercorns, these were selling in my shop as young peppercorns and are harvested when unripe, its amazing what you find out when you go shopping. I added these to the stir fry at the very last minute as advised by the Chinese shopkeeper.

I found also when looking about the net that these items along with garlic ginger and chilli go to making Thai Green curry paste, so I hope to have a go at that one day soon.

I added my own green chillis from the garden and this ensured hot hot hot!!

The stir fry is so simple to make, the sauce goes into the wok, then the prawns, then the spices,its effortless. This is the best of both worlds using a great quality sauce and fresh spices too. I wish you could smell the aroma from the picture above it was a dish cooking that brings the family into the kitchen asking when its ready!

I really recommend using Jasmine sticky rice, it just harmonizes the meal so well.

So this is the finished dish, I love the look of it and with the decoration of the green peppercorns it looked fabulous, this recipe serves 4 but 4 very small portions, I divided between three and if you are a hearty eater two servings would be good.

The flavours are amazing, its really fragrant, lemony, gingery and very hot. I am not a fan of sweet and savoury and this is slightly sweet, but the lime, galangal and peppercorns made this dish so tasty the sweet was not so much of an issue.

Here is the recipe I followed if you want to give it a go try and source the fresh spices, it really lifted this meal into authentic Asian cuisine>